Scientific Director of the UCSC Genomics Institute David Haussler, at right, and Alexander Wolf, Dean of the Baskin School of Engineering, answer questions about the Genomics Institute’s new Delaware Avenue headquarters. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Nicholas Ibarra | Santa Cruz Sentinel | September 6, 2019

SANTA CRUZ — The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute is moving off campus and into the middle of a growing biotech hub on the city’s westside.

Evolving from the team of researchers that helped crack the human genome, the institute has become a crown jewel for the Santa Cruz campus as it continues to grapple with some of the deepest questions of human potential and medical science — and toes the front line of the science’s nascent business potential.

In a new 11,000-square-foot headquarters in a renovated office building at 2300 Delaware Ave., the Genomics Institute is hoping to find firm footing for its work in Santa Cruz’s growing biotech corridor.

Biotech incubator Startup Sandbox, a university-affiliated nonprofit, is just blocks away on Natural Bridges Drive. Budding biotech startups Claret Bioscience, NantOmics and Ontera are just around the corner, as is more venerable medical-research supplier Santa Cruz Biotechnology.

David Haussler, the institute’s scientific director and professor who led the team assembling the first human genome, said he expects the institute to form an anchor for the continued expansion of the budding industry hub.

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